First body piercing

I had always liked the look of a navel piercing, and I had wanted one for a few years, but there was always a strong answer from my parents when I'd asked, NO! About a month before my 16th birthday, having not asked about the navel in over six months, I brought it up again, using my best persuasion. Surprisingly, they gave in and said I could. I still had to decide where I would go, as I had two friends who had been suggesting two different places. One place only let you have a plain barbel with no jewels or decorations on the end, which I didn't like. The other place let you get a barbel with a crystal on it, which is what I had imagined when I first thought of getting my navel pierced, so I chose that place. It wasn't far away and apparently, from people that I'd talked to, it was very well known.

About a month later, the day after my birthday, my friend, who was also getting hers pierced, her mom, my mom, and I all when to the tattoo and piercing shop: 12 ounce. We needed to give them our birth certificates, school ID's, and our parent's driver's licenses, and then we were ready to go. We waited a little while because the piercer wasn't there yet, so we watched someone get the beginning of their tattoo. We also got to choose the rings we wanted. There was a display case with rings with crystals of every color, and I chose a clear crystal because it was cute and would match everything. The total cost of everything including the jewelry was around $60. Mark, the piercer, eventually arrived and we went into the back room (except my mom because she can't watch that sort of thing).

The room looked clean, and I decided to go first. I stood up and Mark drew the markings on my stomach, and they looked good to me. Then I laid down and he opened the new needle and clamps from a package. He made a few jokes and we all laughed and I eased my fear a little. He even told us that he had pierced countless navels, even blindfolded! He really looked like he knew what he was doing which made me feel a lot better, as that was one of the things navel rings I was most nervous about from the beginning. He wiped my navel with iodine and then put on the clamp. Some say this hurts the worst, but I didn't think it was too painful. He told me to take a deep breath in, and then out, and he pushed the needle through. It was painful, but it was just like a strong pinch that only lasted a second or two. All the while, I was squeezing my friend's mom's hand as my friend videotaped me getting it pierced. Mark pushed the jewelry through, which felt cold, and screwed on the ball. I watched my fr iend get hers too, and then we admired them in the mirrors as Mark told us to clean them twice a day using sea salt wound wash. We got some on the way home, and my navel felt a slight burning sensation, which I am told is normal. Mark also told us not to use any alcohol or peroxide, as it can cause scar tissue. The pain lasted for about an hour, and it was hard to walk quickly because it hurt pretty badly. It tuned into more of a numb pain that was more of an annoyance, but nothing to fear, just the typical soreness from having a needle shoved through your body.

It has been one full day and although that doesn't seem like much time, my navel feels a whole lot better than it did yesterday. Yesterday, it was very sore and I felt a lot of pain if anything touched it at all. Today, I can move it around a lot (although I try not to touch it too much), and it is much easier to clean. To clean it, I take a Q tip and put some of the sea salt wash on it. Then I push the bottom of the ring up, exposing the bar of the ring, rubbing the q tip on it, then I push the top down so the bar sticks out at the bottom, and repeat. This is hard to do on the first day because it is so painful, but on the second day it is very simple. It looks great and I couldn't be happier! It is September now, so I figure by net summer it will be completely healed and I'll be ready to show it off! My only advice is to make sure you go to a very sterile environment and keep up with the cleaning!

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